AN: I'm so sorry that I haven't updated in ages, I'll get better I promise, but since I'm back you guys need another chapter right

Disclaimer: Nothing you see is mine, apart from Sebastian who is actually based of a crush of mine, and he'll never know HAHAHA

On with the story!

Chapter 9: A Boyfriend's Reasoning.

Although Piper wanted to ask Jason what he was doing as soon as the conference let out, she was unable too, as Sebastian took him to the side immediately. Piper couldn't hear what they were saying, but she noticed that Sebastian looked very worried and Jason calmed him down. Piper went over to her dad, and sat next to him on the chairs behind the press conference room, where the reporters were still filtering out.

"Hey dad. Do you think that I'll be any good at acting- I mean really?" This had been bothering Piper since the evening she had agreed to it. It was fair enough to assume that as her dad; and mom actually were brilliant at acting, that she'd have some talent- but enough to pull of the main character in a massive new film? Besides, it wasn't just her and Jason on the line; if it was she wouldn't really care, so what if they flunked, they could just go live at camp. But Sebastian would lose his entire career, and he was such a nice guy. Not to mention the other actors in the movie.

"Pipes, I didn't just agree with it because I wanted to be in a film with you, although that was a large part in the reasoning. I know you can do this. All those times you were mad at me for not listening to you, and I saw your mask go back up. There's a name for that in acting. It's called the private mask. Separating your personality from the image of you that you show people. My actions forced you to practice it from such a young age..." Piper looked up in surprise at that; she could see sadness and a whole load of shame on her dad's face. "I'm sorry Pipes- I... I guess I was just so upset about your mom I threw myself into acting and forgot I had a daughter most of the time... I'm Sorry..." Piper felt tears slipping down her cheeks. How long had she wished that her dad would notice her properly? That he would apologize for never being there? It didn't make up for it, but it definitely helped. She threw herself into her dad's arms and gave him a massive hug.

He hugged her back, then lifted up her chin and wiped away her tears with the sleeve of his shirt. "My little girl's all grown up, and I should've been there." Piper gave him a small smile, and sniffed. She looked over at Jason and he gave her a smile, noticed her face and frowned. Piper slipped into the seat by her dad, and wiped away the last tears as Jason and Sebastian made their way over. She sat up straighter and smiled; it looked like all her sadness rolled away- and suddenly she was Miss happy again.

"Private mask- see." Piper smile faltered, was she really that good at it? She didn't want to make herself paranoid but... No. Jason knew her, so did Leo and the rest of the seven. It didn't matter if she was good at hiding her emotions, they could still tell about the ones that mattered. She didn't want to be that good at hiding.

Sebastian sat down in the seat the other side of Tristan, and Jason dragged one seat around in front of them. Piper looked around. "Where did Troy go?"

"Went home, he had an appointment with something or other" Sebastian responded. "Now Jason said he'd explain about the girlfriend thing, if you wanted to know."

Jason looked at Piper. During the war she had gotten quite good at reading his face, and it seemed he wanted to tell Sebastian about them being a couple. Wait... he wanted to tell Sebastian? Piper wasn't sure that was the best thing to do, but...Well he was a producer- he was good at keeping secrets from the fans and media- he could probably keep it from Mrs. Danno. Piper gave a small nod, not totally sure, but hey, being in a relationship meant that you trusted the other person even when you thought they might be wrong. Besides even if he couldn't keep it secret it didn't matter that much.

Jason grinned at the three of them. "First of all, it wasn't a lie, I do have a girlfriend. I noticed Mrs. Danno earlier, glaring at Piper. Now I didn't think it was particularly nice of her to hate someone who never did anything to her...So I laid a false chase. My girlfriend..." He took Piper's hand in his own. "Just so happens to be in the film with me. So, I don't have any problem at all with kissing her."

Sebastian's mouth dropped, "You and Piper. Well I never would have guessed- you seemed like you were just meeting for the first time, and you played that part so well." Sebastian looked so gleeful at the thought "brilliant acting- I can't wait to start filming". His face dropped into confusion, "But why did you want to lay a false trail, you're going to get loads of media on your trail, what..."

"I don't like it when people look at my girlfriend like that. If she's going to be that cruel, well she needs taking down a few pegs. Besides we can drag it out, and when she splashes it over the media that we're cheating on our respective others, we can reveal we are actually together."

Piper frowned. "But surely she'll hate me more if we do that."

Sebastian butted in "Her reputation will be in tatters. She's very good at getting the truth, though she puts a horrible spin on a lot of it. I she gets something that wrong, despite the media knowing it was a trick on her; she'll still lose respect because such a good reporter as her should be able to figure out that it was a trick."

Piper's dad joined the conversation. "Besides, quite a few people know she has a problem with me, so they'll think she's just making up things for revenge and that won't sit well with a lot of people. It's fine to get revenge so long as it's the truth."

"But then," Sebastian added, "the problem becomes that during the meantime, when Danno is dragging Piper's name through the mud, a lot of people are going to assume cruel things about her." He looked at Piper. Can you deal with your name being dirt on social media and in gossip magazines?"

Piper looked at Jason and her Dad. Mrs Danno had been after Tristan McLean for years, it was about time she stopped, and she and Jason were just the two to finish her. "Yeah, besides, if it gets too much we can always call it off at any point, so long as we agree."

Piper's dad and Sebastian nodded at each other and both got up to leave, having a quick chat by the door, after which Sebastian left and her Dad turned to beckon to Piper.

But before she could leave a thought struck Piper; she turned to Jason with an evil sort of smirk, that, had anyone thought to compare her to her mother, looked just like Aphrodite when she had just thought up the best way to annoy dear Artemis's hunters. "Jason, we said that Thalia ran away from home right? And you haven't seen her since?"

"Yes... Where's this going".

"Well, if we get Thalia to agree and Mrs Danno was to take a picture of you at a restaurant catching up with your sister, just the two of you, I wonder what conclusion she'd jump to?" Piper's smile widened "and how embarrassing it would be for the poor woman if it was to come out that you were siblings catching up..."

Jason grinned widely, "Piper you can be really evil sometimes."

Piper rose from her seat and turned to go, "Well, they do say love's cruel, I must be more like Mom than I thought".